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An Exploration of First-Generation College Students Career Development Beliefs and

Experiences
In this article Tate, Caperton, Kaiser, Pruitt, White and Hall (2015) aim to get an
understanding of how first-generation college students see their experiences towards their career
path and their beliefs regarding themselves as a first-generation student. Through this, further
practice can be used to help first generation students where they need it. A first generation
student is defined as a student whose parents did not go to college or did not complete a degree
after starting it. First-generation college students are also associated with being from lowincome households and are disproportionately consisting of minority groups. First-generation
students often do not perform as well as their peers with a more familiar background. This could
be for a multitude of reasons, such as being less prepared for the academic environment or not
having resources available.
In this study, Tate et al. (2015) look at interviews that took place for 15 first generation
students. Of these participants, ten were women and five were men. The racial breakdown of
these 15 participants consisted of six Caucasian/white, five black/African American, three
Hispanic/Latino, and one Asian America. The interviews were conducted as focus groups with
one group consisting of eight participants and the other seven. The interviews looked to answer
these questions: What external factors have impacted first-generation students career
development experiences, what beliefs or perceptions do first-generation students have about
their career development process, and what strengths do first-generation students believe they
bring to their career and educational pursuits.
Through their research, Tate et al. (2015) found three main categories that the students
referenced in their answers: external factors on the career development process, understanding of
the career development process, and self-concept as a first-generation college student. Many of

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the students found that they had external influences in common, such as family influences.
These influences caused stress in many of the participants as many of them quoted their parents
as saying that they want the student to have a better life than they had. Though students
discussed that their parents were supportive and excited for them, their parents lack of
knowledge was detrimental to them. This also let to the students having a lack of professional
networking. Students disclosed that since their parents did not have professional networks,
neither did they. This also disclosed that their career development department encouraged
students to get internships, but when asked where to find one, frequently told the students to ask
their parents.
When trying to understand their career development process, the participants disclosed
that they believe that they will have to work much harder than their peers because they do not
have their future laid out for them and they have to build from scratch. Also, they are
worried about how employers would view them. They worry that they will only be offered
positions due to the equal opportunity and affirmative action and not based on their skills. This
causes anxiety on how their future coworkers would view them.
Though the participants disclosed their worries about their future careers, they are also
very determined and positive about their future. The participants talked about being very
motivated to succeed. Some students also discussed feeling more adaptable to new situations
given their adaptability to the college environment.
Through this further understanding of how first-generation student think about their
career futures and how they understand themselves as first-generation, institutions can adapt this
knowledge and create new programs to assist students in guiding them towards a successful

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career path. These programs could focus on finding a support network, looking into internships,
and helping students reach their career goals.
Though, it is good that researchers are trying to get a better understanding of how firstgeneration students think and understand themselves, it would have been better to do individual
interviews rather than focus groups, considering there was such a small sample size. There was
not much variety in the responses due to the focus group. Once a participant reflects on one
aspect of the question, the rest of the group will as well. Individual answers and interview would
have guided more diverse answers. Focus groups would seem necessary for a large pool of
applicants.
Also, the authors could have left out many of the direct quotes and paraphrased instead.
Many of the quotes were full of grammatical errors and were sometimes confusing. The article
itself was full of grammatical errors as well, which gave the article less credibility. They also did
not have many questions that they were asking their focus groups and they did not express the
validity of the questions they asked.

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References
Tate, K. A., Caperton, W., Kaiser, D., Pruitt, N. T., White, H., & Hall, E. (2015). An exploration
of first-generation college students career development beliefs and experiences. Journal
of Career Development, 42(4), 294-310. doi:10.1177/0894845314565025